Would You Love Me More?
by Lagged
Summary: Inspired by Alec Benjamin's "If I Killed Someone For You." It should've been a quick errand. He just needs to tell a civilian man that his boss mad at him for failing to come at work the last three days. Then he would enjoy the remainder of the day reading through his new claimed book. If only Uchiha Itachi didn't stand there, in his destination. Can he get a day off peacefully?


This work of fiction was majorly inspired by "If I Killed Someone For You" by Alec Benjamin.

Disclaimer: anything other than Yuuka and plot used in this writing (including but not limited to the character of Naruto, Detective Conan and few cameos from another work of fictions) belong to it respectful owner.

Warning: a depiction of violence, OOC-ness, and any other things that don't correspond with the original, including name difference.

xxxxxx

For a few days her favorite neighbor Shihou, the quiet girl, grew even quieter and jittery. Honestly, it's disconcerting. She never says what was bothering her. So as a good neighbor, Yuuka showed at her neighbor doorstep the first time in the morning. With bags of groceries, she let herself in. Ignoring her neighbor timid protest, and make breakfast for two.

Everything after that was a monotonous routine. They got to prepare for their respective work. Yuuka at the Civilian School, and the quiet girl, at the Konoha Central Library. They would walk in silence and bade goodbye at the three-way junction before the library.

But for the first time in a week, someone had waited for Shihou. Someone Yuuka recognized as Shihou's boyfriend. Usually, she would tease the lovebird for their silent meetings. Unfortunately, the tightness in the boy smile and his dead eyes tell her to shut up.

She waves them farewell, promising to herself she would check on them at the afternoon. She walks away, distractedly noting that they weren't holding hands like their usual lovestruck self. And if she wasn't just imagining things, she believed that the boy seems jerked his hand away from Shihou's grasp.

She entering the fenced schoolyard with a sigh. Great. Now she began to make up things about people relationship. Her enormous workload might burden her mind more than necessary.

xxx

Halfway through the day, someone popped up in front of her class. Waiting in the hallway even though she shoo-ed him. Give her no other option than speak to him. The Nara-Yamanaka hybrid that was, unfortunately, her childhood friend.

"So, to what occasion was that I owe your presence?"

He stared. Looking into her eyes for something she couldn't comprehend. Seemingly making a conclusion, he finally asks, "Tell me about Shihou."

"Why?"

He discreetly looked around. Then says with a frown, "I don't think this conversation suited to have in the hallway."

Yuuka rolled her eyes. Beckoning the young man to follow her inside. The lunch hour might last for another fifty minutes, but it saves more time to get him to talk right now in the empty classroom.

She produced a privacy seal they created together in the past when things haven't twist to the worst possible direction. Activating it, ignoring his stare. "Now, talk."

"You know I can't talk about work to you. There's strict regulation about that."

"That's bullshit you didn't believe. And I had activated the seal. Now start talking, or scram!" the brown-haired instructor almost yelled to express her point.

"There was a murder," says the man finally, as blunt as ever. Brushing off her gaping expression, he continues, "It happens sometime in the timeframe of three days. And Shihou is one of..."

She blinks then cut harshly. "Are suspecting my quiet neighbor? Just so you know, she won't have the capability of doing that. Heck, she can't even hurt a fly!"

"Yuuka. Please. I had my orders. I broke our code of conduct as it is. I can't describe the hypotheses right now. There was evidence gathered, witnesses asked and alibies considered. Your neighbor was a select few that had contact with the victim in his last days. But your testimony might help the case."

"I..." She gulped. The brown-haired woman knows firsthand how his job means for him. She should have known that his appearance means he needed the second opinion. While she loathed him for things that happened at their past and would do everything to make his life harder, she couldn't just let the kind Shihou suffer an injustice.

"Look," she finally facing her friend. Only to immediately look away, trying to take no notice of the blue eyes that regarded her intently. "If you looking for an alibi, she always with me for six days, and I never took my eyes off her. Not even once."

He frowns. The man nodded at her explanation but doesn't seem satisfied. "Did you came to her workplace?"

Tasting bile in her mouth, she says,"...No."

"The thing is, she seems to disappear few times at her work time. Her coworker couldn't tell about that, and I had hoped that you could tell us why."

"And what she says?" a sense of foreboding warned her from saying the question. But she needed to know.

"She told us that it was her that killed the victim."

"No." _Impossible._ "There's no way it was true."

"My point exactly." He runs his hand through his spiky ponytail. He sighs then admitted, "The mental reaction was wrong. And the weapon murder hasn't found yet. But since her alibi was the weakest, and she had the motives, even as far as confessed, I had no way to disprove them."

They trapped in stifling silence. in felt ages has passed when Yuuka finally asks, "the victim, who was it?"

"Shihou's stepbrother."

Yuuka's heart sank. She knows there were problems between the step-siblings. Yet Shihou never allows her to do anything. Not even reporting the abuse she undoubtedly receives from that man. Saying that her brother was the last family she ever had. Or something resembles a family. But the abuse might validate the investigator suspicion on her motive to murder.

xxxx

It was a few minutes past two in the morning when he slipped to his apartment. Not that anyone would stop him. The alleyway he frequented was always empty no matter what time it was. And the patrol was too preoccupied with wasted people from the bars.

He greeted by emptiness just like every other day. He closed the door behind him. And began to navigate through the darkness. The boy rummaging his cabinet, looking for hydrogen peroxide he bought another day.

When it found, he walks toward the bathroom. Clicking the switch on, and began to unravel the pack he shouldered. Showing his set of clothes, a pair of gloves, bloodied kunai wrapped in cloth and few bloodied rags.

Mechanically, he began to pour the chemical solution unto the stains. Rinsing them, all while ignoring the red liquid that drained to the sink. When all was clean, he throws them unto his washing machine. Dumping other unwashed clothes, and starting the machine.

The only thing that left untouched was his kunai. He washed it, the last thing that ended that man life.

It was easy, honestly. Too easy. That man too arrogant to think that his weak acquaintance wasn't so weak anymore. He forgot that his guest was a shinobi (albeit the one that never got to past the Chunin Exam) when he just a civilian. A strong one, but still civilian.

The kunai that cut the man jugular was cleaned easily. But his hand wasn't. He incisively knows that the blood wasn't real. Because he wears the gloves when he did it. Still, he scrubbed his hands raw. Only when the washing machine beeped, he stops.

The genin step under the shower, turning them unto the highest setting. Trying to staves off the coldness that crept in his heart.

He frowns, looking at the ripples on the water surface. Weird. He never felt this way. Even though he had killed many people before, since his first disastrous C-rank mission. But he felt remorse or anguish (and sometimes disgust) back then. Not a cold numbness.

The water started to overflow. He stepped outside. Wiping his body dry. He takes the first shirt and pants that he sees in his closet. The boy packs his things just like he always do before a mission.

Then he leaped outside from his window pane. Squint at the rising sun. Blinks and quickly jumped through the rooftops. The young man disappears in Konoha's deep forest. He would visit Shihou later when he wasn't a big mess. The last thing he wants was her rejection. He would never stand it after what he did for her last night.

xxxx

Finally, for the first time since months, he would get a day off. It means he got to laze around. Or spending the noon in the calming atmosphere of Konoha Library. Maybe he could finally conquer the politics side of the library while at that.

Between the preparation for the jounin exam and sating his detective curiosity, he never got chance to 'broaden' his view. And maybe, he should swing by at the Civilian School. Yuuka might be in a good enough mood to let him 'casually' drop in near her class.

"...ta! Arata!"

He groans. Judging from the familiarity and urgency from the voice, it seems that another day off is slipping from his clutch. He turns around and found Makoto, the convenience store manager, gasping for breath. Since he helped the grizzly man solving theft problem in the store he tended, the man began to ask for his help in solving a few cases. He couldn't refuse. Because, since that day, most of his savings depend on groceries discount that Makoto throws at him.

It means Arata can't hate that. Still, he really itched for a holiday right now.

 _Aargh_.

Shikaku-san was right. His detective instinct was so troublesome. If he didn't step up and help him that day, a day off might not be a distant dream. Maybe 'Hero Complex' wasn't just Shuhei problem. He might be infected by them already, being around him for years.

"Can you make it quick? Today supposed to be my day off, you see..." He shoves his hand in his pocket, tries to subtly discourage the man from asking his assistance on time-consuming things.

The man rummages through his pockets and produces a pocket size book. Arata raises his eyebrows, checking the book he just received. Upon reading its title, his eyebrows almost disappear behind his hairline.

"This is..."

"The mystery book from the outside you've been wanted for a while."

"Whoa. Thank you. I can't find them anywhere."

"Obviously, they came from the outside, duh."

He rolled his eyes and said, "there's a thing called a figure of speech, old man."

The grizzly man gave a hearty laugh. Arata smiled at him. When the laugh recedes, he asks, "There's no way you give this for free right?"

"Well, now you say it... It'll help if you do me a favor." The man nodded decisively as if he never planned to do so from the start.

"What kind of favor?"

"One of my worker gone for three days. He disappears from time to time. But never for this long. And he never misses a payday, until yesterday."

He nodded attentively. "Anything I need to know about him?"

"He is a strong lad. Packed a punch, but undoubtedly a coward. He won't fight a shinobi unless they weaker than him."

"Sound like a sorry excuse of a man."

The man shrugged, giving Arata a piece of paper.

"His address?"

The older man nodded and waves him goodbye.

He walks away, tucking the book in his pocket. Thankfully, the address was somewhere near the clan compound. Or he would lose another minute for a detour.

He sped up, trying to conserve time as much as possible. It should have been a quick errand for a precious mystery book he just received. And judging from what Makoto says, an easy job for a shinobi.

He leaped to the last rooftops a block away from his destination. The hardest thing that could happen would be 'convincing' the man to go and show himself to Makoto. There's should be nothing that holds him back. No urgent mission, nor a crime scene.

Yet, as if to taunt him, the sight of a person he shouldn't meet until tomorrow greeted him at Makoto's worker door. He sighs deeply. Let's hope things weren't as bad as he thought is.

"Arata-san."

"Itachi-san."

"Are you going to arrest the apartment occupant?" He asked the first suspicion he had. With the description provided by Makoto, there are only a few deductions he could make. He really hopes it right. And the other thought was better never happened.

"No. He has murdered."

"What?! Seriously?" He really needs an exorcism performed on him. There were too many times he jinxed himself. He ran his hand through his spiky ponytail. Then whispered his suspicion, "is... he, by any chance, murdered three days ago?"

His superior looks surprised (not that shows in his expression. Arata just knows), which changed quickly into suspicion.

Without prompt, he raised a scrap of paper with an address to the young chief.

"His boss asked me to check up on him since he fails to show up at payday. Which is yesterday."

Itachi nodded. He looks at his subordinate for few moments before says, "he dies approximately eighty hours ago."

"Any lead yet?"

"Three suspects. We still trying to narrow it down."

He grew quiet. Now since the man has died, he could go back at Makoto and tell him the new development. Then he would get the day off he yearned for. But doing that felt so wrong. Naturally, it means he got to involve himself in an investigation. He sighed again and muttered his dad favorite phrase, "this is so troublesome."

"You know you can leave this, and enjoy your day off. I won't say anything about it." His superior eyebrow raised slightly. While having Arata in the investigation was helping it wrapped quickly, a day off was just as important.

"And haunted by everything for the remainder of the day? No, thanks." As usual, he refused to back off when a case happened under his nose.

"Okay. Ask Daisuke for every information you needed for this case," says Itachi, which his subordinate translated as approval to prod the crime scene.

"Aye."

"Also, prepare yourself for overtime."

He brushed the chief warning off. They were always doing overtime work, after all.

xxxx

Yuuka drew a deep breath, shutting her eyes shut. Her brain making a few connections to the fact she just learned. While she could never compete with Arata in term of intelligence, there was a reason she could keep up with his unbridled curiosity.

After a few exhale, she opens her eyes and states, "I think I had a theory. You could follow me, but don't try to do anything before I say so."

Her childhood friend nodded in understanding. She narrows her eyes at him and added, "and that included in playing hero. I had the capability to protect myself."

His expression blank. But that should make do. She had no time stressing to him that fact. Because if she can come to that conclusion then everyone else could. And if they want to include her, at least she can do was doing the thing in her own term.

She deactivated the seal and pocketed them with practiced ease. Noting that the lunch break would over in ten minutes. She nods to herself and going to the faculty office. Taking he leave after bribed a fellow instructor to replace her for the next class.

She sped up to her apartment complex. But instead entering hers, she goes to her neighbor door and crouched down.

Fortunately, the spare key is still hidden under the rug.

She entering the key, but stop before moves them. She turns back and threatened Arata for the last time, "stay right here. And don't enter until I scream."

She quickly makes her way through the apartment. Checking every corner, opening every door. Trying to note anything different from the morning she was here. Yuuka goes on, peeking the beeping washing machine. Standing in front of the last room, and exhaled deeply.

If she was right, then... Bingo!

Inside Shihou room was her boyfriend, sleeping soundly. Now that she looks intently, there was a sign of his lack of sleep. And his clothes has changed with something she found in Shihou's wardrobe a few days ago. She shook him awake. She needed him awake to tell her whether her theory was correct, or not.

It was a hard task since he barely twitched. She stood up. Should she dump water on him? Or resort to violence?

Dumping water on him might ruin the bed. But hurting him might trigger a violent reaction and there's a chance it'll destroy the room. The former, then. She raised her hand, intending to make a tiger seal, only to drop them again. A weak water bullet might still be registered as an attack in his sleepy brain. So it leaves a traditional way.

She sighed, let's hope she can find some container to bring the water. She rummaged through the cabinet, looking at the cupboard, and the only one she found was a medium sized timber bucket.

Let's hope this enough, she thinks for herself. She proceeds to dump the bucket content to the bed occupant, earning a sharp gasp. His eyes warily darted around wildly. Then immediately jumped behind when he realized it was her that waking him up. Not his dear girlfriend.

Yuuka breathed in relief. If he was wary, then it's good. The last thing she needed was an incoherent informant. He narrows his eyes but hasn't said a word.

The girl stepped behind and resting his back at the door, hampering an escape. Or break-in. Anything goes.

"I'll tell you about Shihou whereabouts if you answer my question."

He stilled, but his dead eyes finally show an emotion. Defiance. Still, the girl didn't really need compliance. She just needs him to know that his answer holds importance to his desire to find Shihou.

"Do you know that she had a brother?" she says, eyes never leaving the genin body.

"They looked like they were really close as a sibling." No reaction. His dead eyes really unnerving. But she can't look away.

"But I don't think it was real. I mean... a sign of abuse shows in her body." A twitch. Good. So he still capable of feeling after all. It means indifference wasn't his default state.

"Maybe that's why three days ago, she snapped." Another twitch. Downplayed, since he conscious of her undivided attention. Yet it shows that the first motion wasn't produced by her stressed mind.

"That was expected though, there's only so much violence someone could endure before they broke," she says with a shrug.

"...t broken." his indifferent expression morphed.

Yuuka ears perked. "What?" she asks, thinking the young man before hasn't reached his breaking point and had no reason to say anything.

With a hiss and narrowed his eyes, he says, "she isn't a thing. She didn't and won't be broken."

Burying her elation for his response with a frown, she states, "and how can you be so sure?"

Shihou boyfriend clenched his hand tightly. _Of course, he won't say anything._ Inwardly, she wonders if her theory was actually wrong all along. But there's no choice other than shoves her doubt aside and informed to him about Shihou predicament her way. Then let him reveal all the truth voluntarily. It would really help if he wasn't forced to do so.

Yuuka waves her hand, stressing her point. Then continued, "you just arrived from a mission, don't you?" _At least, according to the mission record, which enforced by Shihou testimony._ "You don't even here three days ago. So you didn't have any evidence that..."

"Stop."

As if nothing disturb her, she persisted and continues, "...Shihou wasn't k..."

"Shut up! She didn't do that!" He cut Yuuka's one-sided conversation with a shout.

She raised her eyebrows in challenge. "Oh? And how could you so sure about that? Don't you ever heard that it was always the quiet one?"

As in cue, he leaped to Yuuka while swinging his fist. Which she dodged with a sigh. Seriously, why were boys always do things recklessly?

She ducked when another fist coming. Then with a stick she always concealed inside her sleeve, she jabs his stomach hard. Making him skidded behind.

Yet the young man still brimming with anger. He continues to attack, which she countered with a kick to few pieces of furniture here and there, to slow him down. _Urgh. So much from trying to avoid triggering a violent reaction._

"Seriously, why don't you just tell me what lies she feed you? And I might stop badmouthing her," she suggested when he tried to raise his body that slumped between table's splinter. Only to fail, and fall again with a thump.

He stubbornly stays silent. Yuuka sigh for the nth time this afternoon, then opened her mouth, "no matter how many time you deny, it won't change anything. Unless..." she paused, building tension between them. Few beats later she says, "... unless there was a piece of concrete evidence to prove that she was as kind as you though it is."

A silence. The young man stared at the ceiling.

"Well," she clapped and make a move to turn around and tell the slumped figure, "that was a nice discussion we have. Now I had to go and tell them..."

"She was innocent" He cut her monologue, his eyes stared pointedly at the white ceiling.

"Again?" She exaggeratedly turns around. Her face shows exasperation. "No matter how many time you say it, the fact still stands that..."

"I had the murder weapon. It was concrete evidence, right?"

"And how you got them?" she frowned.

"It was me that killed _that man_ ," he spat with a barely concealed contempt.

"Oh." she blinked. So was the young man. But before he asked about her reaction, she yelled, "Oi! Stop hiding!"

A figure showed from the shadowed corner. She stared hard at the figure, her face scowled. But she just breathed deeply and claim, "now we had the true perpetrator, go and bring him to wherever you had to."

 _Let's hope this will be the last time she involved with police work. Or she had to start retraining herself._

Yuuka then proceeds to quit from the room. Walking toward her own apartment slowly. Limping all the way. Now she was alone, the girl could stop pretending she was okay after that fight. Being civilian school instructor make the fight harder than it should be. Halted when she felt someone follows her.

"What?" Her voice sounds clipped. The thing she really wanted right now was crashing at her couch. There was enough excitement for today.

"Did you know all along?" Arata retracted his outstretched hand. Refrained an urge to touch her shoulder. Pocketing them after a beat.

With a side glance, she looked at his posture. As usual, she can't read anything from him. She exclaims,"That he is the murderer? Call it a lucky guess."

xxxx

The real murderer was apprehended at evening, shifting the librarian crime as aiding a criminal. Whatever his subordinate do, has successfully make the genin confessed his crime readily. He narrated them with apathetic indifference. Only after it was revealed that his girlfriend arrested after admitting his crime as her own, he howled in anguish.

Apparently, the victim was his girlfriend's abusive brother. Before, she always avoids that fact and pretends there was nothing wrong between the sibling's relationship. Instead, she blames the abusive nature of the man as an effect of depression. And would dissipate as long as the depression was gone.

But four days ago when he failed to find her at her workplace to bring her to a surprise date, he found her at her brother place. Curled in the living room's corner, sobbing incessantly.

He ignored his urge to maim the man out of respect to Shihou wish, yet decided to hit him with a mild genjutsu and run away with the girlfriend in his arm. He coaxed her to tell what was had happened. Which she quietly obey, and reported between sobs. As the story flow, his anger rising and he almost stormed back to destroy the man. Only the body in his arms that halt him.

It was dusk when his sweetheart finally falls asleep. Caressing her tear-stain cheek, he stood up and leaped from her apartment window. Instead of reporting his arrival to the mission center, he goes to that man place.

Initially, he wanted to teach him a lesson which involves threatening and maybe maiming his girlfriend's brother. Then the man taunting him. Boasting how he had raped his dear sister and enjoys them.

The genin knows that it doesn't entirely true since most of his story might be influenced by genjutsu. Yet it doesn't stop him to think that he ought to save Shihou from misery, and killed the man.

So he killed the man with a cut in his jugular. He said he felt nothing after that since he does them for his girl's peace of mind. Then he stays right there in silence. After he sure that the man has died, he cleans his wound. Dressing them as if he just got a scar in his neck. Later, he proceeds to clean the crime scene mechanically. Wiping the wall and floor. Making as if the room was never disturbed. It would buy him time to explain his reasoning toward his girlfriend. It won't do if she hates him considering that it was for her sake.

He worked on that for the remainder of the night. He showed at her doorstep the following evening. His disheveled appearance and restlessness make it harder to Shihou to recognize him. But when she does, he leaped away, second-guessing himself. The next afternoon, he leaped away when he saw worry in her eyes.

And the third morning, he finally steeled himself to confess. The chance of that man body discovered was greater by that time. Fervently wishes that she would listen and agree to his plan on living on the run.

Unfortunately, she never alone in her apartment. So as to avoid suspicion, he waits for her a few meters after the three-way junction before the library.

Shihou follows him back to the apartment without protest. She might worry too much about him to think anything else. After a few moments of silence, he finally talks.

His lover stays silent, listening to him with a clouded gaze. When he asked the dreaded question, she wanted him to at least have a tea before she answers his question. He agreed, and let her make the tea. He never suspects that she would drug the tea.

x

"Can I have my suspended day off?" says Arata when they leave for the office.

"Okay." He nodded lightly then added, "don't stop before you reach your home. Or you'll never get a holiday."

The blue-eyed man groans at his teasing. Reminding him of the childhood they shared together. And the only missing thing was Arata's cousin.

"Your informant you met after lunch, is Yuuka, right?"

He stopped with a jerk. Itachi turns around and elaborates, "The librarian mentions her name a few times, and you had that look in your face. The kind of expression that shows whenever you met her."

He closes his mouth shut. Pondering about the expression the young chief talked about.

"Oh, right. Do me a favor and ask her to join here."

"She would definitely reject that offer. She always hates our job. Heck, he hated us with a passion."

"Then say to her, the serial homicide case of seven years ago gets a new lead."

He stared hard at his superior -no, his best friend- face. Then exclaimed with a sigh, "she would chew me for this."

xxxx

She hates everything about this building. But at least, she had one place she felt comfortable enough to stop for a moment. A cell that harboring her neighbor for a few days, after it known by the officer that she was hiding a criminal.

"Why did you expose his crime?"

"Seriously now?"

Shihou stared at her without a blink. Making her sigh then says, "didn't you admit doing a crime you never have done because of guilt? Then why can't you allow him to confess his wrongdoing for the same reason?"

xxx End xxx

 **Note** :

Found this song (If I killed someone for you by Alec Benjamin) in the second week of December. And my imagination has been nagged me for the remainder of the year. Originally, I wanted this fic to be my last goodbye to 2018. Yet they exploded on my face and transformed to (more than) 4.333-word one shot. For trying to stay in the mood, I've been listening to the song. And honestly, it hard to listen to one song for five days. But well, it nice to see it finally ended. Dunno what would've been happened if I still couldn't end them.

You might want to skip and stop reading, but I'll write this as an explanation:

Arata is based from Shinichi Kudo, with a touch of Nara laziness. Since I always think, that if he born in Naruto world, he would be born as a Nara. Self-assured of his ability and make deductive reasoning for every good deed he does. Well, Nara's might just say it troublesome to not doing the good deed. And they shared the same kanji (新) in their name.

Shihou formerly would be named Shiho, inspired by Shiho Miyano (Ai Haibara) that tries to sacrifice herself for her friend and family safety. But since Naruto world had a character with the same name, it changed to avoid confusion.

Shuhei means guardian. And his 'Hero Complex' inspired by Harry-saving-people-thing from Harry Potter. It might enough clue to hint who he based from.

And last, Itachi still in Konoha. This was actually an AU where the massacre leaves a few survivors, and Arata might or might not have a hand on that. I've some story ideas on the premise, but well, it hard to write them.


End file.
